The visionary behind the now-timeless El Topo and The Holy Mountain returns with his first cinematic work in over two decades, and it couldn’t be a more heartfelt journey. Alejandro Jodorowsky is no stranger to strange autobiography, as 1989’s Santa Sangre can attest, but The Dance of Reality goes many surreal steps further into the artist’s childhood. Filmed in Jodorowsky’s sleepy coastal Chilean home town of Tocopilla, it charts the upbringing of young Ale, clad in flowing Goldilocks mane, at once smothered by an operatic mother and tormented by an ex-circus performer father, who wishes his little one would become a “real man.” All manner of metaphorical, mythological, political and poetic machinations swirl around the boy, as Jodorowsky (appearing as the omniscient narrator) reflects on a reality that is not objective, but rather a “dance” created by our own imaginations. It’s been long enough since the title card “An Alejandro Jodorowsky Film” has newly appeared in movie houses that our fearless pioneer, mindful that this might be his final work, infuses the Dance with enough sincere, personal, devastating and lasting imagery to be truly worthy of that sentiment.
Dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013, DCP, 130 min.

To watch the trailer for “The Dance of Reality”, visit the top of this series page!

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